


Digitized

by Kay (sincere)



Category: Subarashiki Kono Sekai | The World Ends With You
Genre: Frustrating Conversationalists, Gen, Joshua Being Joshua, M/M, Technology
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-02
Updated: 2015-09-02
Packaged: 2018-04-18 17:28:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4714352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sincere/pseuds/Kay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Joshua can complain about anything under the sun, but some complaints are more serious -- and more meaningful -- than others.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Digitized

**Author's Note:**

> Contains Joshua, a warning in and of itself. Written to the [](http://fic-promptly.dreamwidth.org/profile)[](http://fic-promptly.dreamwidth.org/)**fic_promptly** prompt: "of course Joshua has complaints about e-books".

"Don't you ever miss the tactile sensation of paper in your hands?" Joshua asked.

He was reclining on the sofa and Sanae couldn't see him directly, but he could imagine the expression on the Composer's face perfectly. His lips quirked up. "Sure," he said. "You get used to it, though."

Joshua made a thoughtful noise. "Is it like giving up canvas to do street art?"

Sanae paused, straightening up. He'd never thought about it that way before, and the connection startled him a little. In a way, both were the modernization of an artform... although one was a platform for audience interaction, and the other was only manipulated by the creator.

After a beat passed, Joshua straightened, draping himself over the back of the couch with e-reader dangling from his hand. "I'm sorry," he said, sugary-sweet. "Is that question awkward for you because you got your start on cave walls before canvas was invented?"

He relaxed again, chuckling. He knew better than to get caught up in his thoughts when Joshua was demanding his attention. "Stop fishing for my age," he said instead. "You know how vain I am."

Joshua returned to his prone position and resumed reading. The peaceable silence lasted for almost two whole minutes before he was saying, "This thing is everything that's wrong with our society," distastefully.

In spite of himself, Sanae almost choked on his coffee. " _That_ thing?" he echoed with amusement. "It's so much more powerful than its 256 megabytes of RAM would have me believe."

"Stop talking in tech, dear, you know it makes you sound like a basement-dweller," Joshua said. "This thing, with its _convenience_ and its _adaptability_. If you're too lazy to go to the library and would prefer not to have to interact with human beings, you can download books directly to your little plastic rectangle. If you're bored with traditional page formats, why not try adding more columns? Or fewer? Double the line spacing and choose a fancier font and see how that looks. Why not try reading with the _sepia_ background instead of the white one?"

"I take it that you're not a fan of convenience and adaptability," Sanae said dryly.

"It caters to a person's every whim. There are some for whom the traditional format is inaccessible, but the problem is that for the rest of humanity, the world is being tailored to meet their preferences instead of them learning to accept things the way they are. Every day the people of this city get more and more self-absorbed and lose all ability to connect with other people. Would it kill them to go to the library and check out a book in person?"

By the end of his acerbic lecture, the edge had gone out of Joshua's voice, and he sounded more disappointed -- sad, maybe. It was a rare vulnerability for him. Sanae knew his frustration as well as he knew his own, and he let the silence sit for a beat while he thought of the best tactic to take with it -- but in the end, even as smart, as _necessary_ as it would be, he didn't have the heart to prey on the moment of weakness.

"I don't see you casting the foul abomination away," he teased instead, getting up to head over to the sofa and lean over it. "You could go down to the library yourself. Start a new trend -- you know what trendy sheep we have here in Shibuya."

Joshua sighed. "Please. Like I have the time for that when I'm holding this city together with my bare hands."

"Good thing you have technology to cater to your every whim," Sanae observed.

"Isn't it, though?" Joshua flipped open his cell phone, skimming it while holding the e-reader in his other hand.


End file.
